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Shocking Video Of Catastrophic Barrel Failure



Jun 19, 2009 12 Comments ›› Erik Wong

In the shooting sports, safety always has to be your number one priority. Even if you have a safe load, if the barrel is obstructed in any way, such as with mud in the barrel, a squib bullet, or a bore-sighting tool left in the barrel, the barrel can blow up, pealing back like a banana skin. Serious injury or even death can result. Below is an amazing video showing a catastrophic barrel failure caused, presumably, by a barrel obstruction — probably mud or dirt. You can see the barrel blow apart, starting at time mark 0:25 seconds.

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AmericanShooter

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The rifle is a Browning stainless A-Bolt, caliber unknown. We don’t know for sure, but the barrel probably became obstructed when the shooter allowed the gun to rest muzzle down on the ground, so some mud collected in the bore. Below, we’ve grabbed five frames from the key section of the video. You can see the barrel split into two segments. This shooter, who was NOT wearing eye protection, was uninjured. He is is lucky that the action held and no metal shards blew backwards.
barrel explosion

Note: There is a slow motion vid of the rupture on the website.


  • Graystoke

    Plugged barrel, keep your damn bore outta the dirt.

    • LCpl. Alexander

      Exactly man.

  • OK Joe

    Lucky SOB.

  • unkaglen

    Hello – hunter saftey 101 – keep your barrel out of the mud,dont’t attempt to “hot rod” your reloads.
    That being said I saw the “Mythbusters” boys try and duplicate this very situation.It was very hard to duplicate,and it took them many attempts to get a barrel explosion.. :sad:

  • David

    See? We need to ban guns for the safety of the stupid.

  • GRIZZ

    No elk for you

  • Armando Garcia

    Guides get stuck with the stupidest people. I have never acutely seen this happen in real life.

  • Storm 0311

    SHIT HAPPENS.

    Got have the hottest loads man……. it’s the guns fault not mine…..

    Dumb ass.

  • AflakDuc

    no shit i Just bought what looks to be the same exact rifle. makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside now… i got a browning a-bolt 30.6 and it looks and awful lot like that one. i was a little frustrated when i was cleaning it 2 nights ago and seen “Japan” imprinted on the barrel and the clip.

  • Icorps 1970

    Don’t be too quick to blame the shooter.
    Stainless barrels are brittle (its a “free machining” alloy, code for “the chips break easy when its cut”) and there have been a number of unexplainable burst barrels in everything from 45 Auto to Sako bolt guns. Sako had a very quite recall of stainless guns recently.
    I have seen photos of a brand new Sako that split full length barrel action and all during the first range session with a new rifle, factory ammo.
    If you look at Krieger barrels web site you will find that they do not recommend recontouring SS barrels or shooting them in cold temperatures under 0 F.
    So its just as likely it was a failure of the barrel, perhaps even more so, than a mistake of the shooters part.
    Light weight barrel, cool temps, so????

  • http://earthlink nomee 1

    this guy is lucky to be alive, shouldnt walk with gun barrel planted in the ground :beer: :beer: double beer.

  • Steve_Montana

    Got I one-eyed classmate that did this with a shotgun goose hunting.

    FYI: Japan makes excellent steel which is why Browning uses their steel. I shoot a couple of Howa 1500′s that are made in Japan. Great… accurate guns.